Invisible Bonds
by silverfae
Summary: Inuyasha once again pursues Kagome to her era, intent on dragging her back to continue with their quest. This time, with the way back blocked by an unknown youkai and the new moon upon them, what's a hanyou to do? InuKag.
1. Chapter 1

Invisible Bonds

Chapter 1

Fluting twitters and chirps drifted through the air, birds serenading a fresh start of day. The barely risen sun cast a watery light over the landscape, brushing the tips of the leaves and grass with a lighter green sheen and glistening off tiny drops of dew. Other than the still-sleepy birds and animals, as well as the soft swish of swaying grass, nothing moved.

Well, mostly nothing, anyway. A splash of green, white, red and yellow, crowned with black, moved furtively among the trees, making a beeline for the clearing in which an old well dominated. Pausing at the edge of the concealing forest, Kagome squinted at the distant well and wondered if she should make a break for it.

This is ridiculous, she thought to herself, frowning slightly. I have a perfectly good reason for going home. No hanyou is going to stop me from taking my exams. Even if they were mock exams, as Souta had told her, but she also heard that these were supposed to help her get a feel of the entrance exams, which seemed a whole lot closer on this side of the year. And because her books were so heavy, it just wasn't too practical to bring them over to this era, since they were on the move most of the time.

She glanced back into the relative darkness of the forest for signs of pursuit; for a moment there, while she was getting up, she could have sworn that she had woken Inuyasha up as well. A few moments of breathlessly studying his apparently sleeping form had settled her nerves at that point (she had to resist the urge to touch those ears again), but she had this sneaking suspicion... She turned quickly as a flash of red caught her eye, but it was only a bird, fluttering from branch to branch. Right, she decided grimly, flicking another glance over her shoulder. Now or never.

Even as she dashed across the intervening distance, her nearly empty bag flapping against her back, a telltale swish of leaves and cloth confirmed her suspicions. And so, when she glimpsed for a moment the odd shadow passing over her, she shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Osuwari!"

------

Inuyasha's light sleep was disturbed by the sounds of someone getting up, and by the smell of it, it was the break of dawn. Stupid wench, he grumbled mentally to himself as he carefully kept his breathing deep and even, his body relaxed in what he hoped was a convincing semblance of slumber.

Unfortunately, his ears perked up involuntarily, and he only just prevented himself from freezing by strength of will as he heard the sounds of movement cease abruptly and felt the light pressure of her gaze on him. He forced himself to keep the pretense up, sighing inwardly with relief as the little rustlings continued and her scrutiny lifted from him after several long seconds, then resumed quietly going down a familiar path of fuming thought. How could she? Just when time was of the essence, and Naraku could find the few remaining shards three days from now, and how Shippou would whine, the little pest..

The absence of noise, as well as of her presence, jerked him out of his thoughts. He snapped into motion, fluidly getting up from his sitting position and grabbing Tessaiga by habit, which was leaning in the corner next to him. Sliding the sheathed sword into it's usual place at his waist, he bounded out the door, noting subconsciously that she hadn't bothered to take her bicycle with her. Peering around him, he spotted her distinctive clothing from a distance and began loping after her, keeping a healthy distance and several vegetative features between them.

As soon as he judged that she had entered the forest, and thus concluding that he was in less danger of being spotted, he accelerated, passing quietly into the forest shadows not too far behind her. Following her familiar scent, he tracked her doggedly (pun intended), pausing every time he heard her footsteps, however distant. Soon, the forest thinned slightly, and he caught sight of her, standing in the shadows at the edge of the clearing, glancing suspiciously over her shoulder. So, she anticipated a confrontation, hmm? He grinned ferally to himself, ironic amusement at this odd routine of theirs momentarily overcoming his annoyance at her clandestine departure.

Climbing the nearest tree with practiced ease, he jumped smoothly from high branch to high branch, careful to keep out of her direct line of sight. Perching on one of the trees bordering the clearing, he was so close to her that his sensitive hearing could pick out her breathing from where he was. Of course, she had noticed nothing, having inferior human senses.

He was just in time, apparently, for she took a deep breath and began a headlong sprint towards the offending well.

Quickly calculating the distance, he timed his flight path to coincide with her own path to her intended destination, and leapt with a wincingly, but necessarily loud swish of branches. However, she was apparently more intuitive than he had initially thought; instead of facing her in righteous anger, he found himself plummeting prematurely to earth, facing a forced confrontation with the overly familiar dirt. "Kaaaa - oomph," he attempted to protest, rather inarticulately, as could be expected after a fall of more than five times his own height.

Half a moment later, she tripped and sprawled awkwardly over his prone form, having brought him down almost right in front of her. "Gwah!" She was answered by a muffled "oof" from the already winded hanyou, who recovered remarkably fast and was soon looming over a dazed Kagome.

"And where were you going?" he demanded coolly, looking down at her, his attempt at arrogance was partly spoiled by the streaks of dirt on his face, and the odd gulping gasp for air that preceded his question. Kagome glared up at him, then got up and brushed herself off, and, ignoring Inuyasha completely, stepped around him and continued towards the well at a brisk, dignified walk. She had no time for this! School was about to start, and she had no particular wish to be late, especially this week!

Inuyasha stared after her, confused; he had been anticipating a loud argument, and this approach froze his response with surprise for several precious moments. He stood there unblinkingly for those moments, then turned to find her already climbing into the well. "Wait! The Shikon no kakera..." he sputtered, then found himself speaking to the blue glow of the activated time portal. Stomping over, he peered down into the shadowed, noticably empty well, and fumed. "Keh! Go then! See if I care!" he shouted irritably down the chasm, flattening his ears against his head and stalking away.

------

Three and a half days later, the sun set in all it's burnished glory on an era that was still Kagome-less. A certain inu-hanyou paced back and forth impatiently beside the well, hands tucked in his sleeves, the distinctly trampled grass beneath his feet looking much the worse for wear. Perched disconsolately on a corner of the well, a bushy-tailed kitsune kept him company, tossing gloomy glances alternately down the well and at his companion. Miroku and Sango, noticable in their absence, had given up waiting a while ago, returning to Kaede's hut to take their dinner.

"I bet you fought with her," Shippou muttered accusingly, shooting another dark look at the pacing Inuyasha. It had been a long time since he saw Kagome, and he missed her soothing presence terribly. "That's why she won't come back."

Inuyasha growled in warning, not pausing at all in his carefully precise steps. Stomp stomp stomp stomp, smart about-turn. He was the one that should be angry, not her! The nerve of the wench, to leave without telling anyone how long she'd be staying in her time! Stomp stomp stomp stomp, turn.

"Didn't she say when she'd come back?" Shippou tried a different tack as the light around them began to fade, inadvertently echoing Inuyasha's train of thought.

"No, she didn't," he ground out, finally stopping his rapid pacing and staring contemplatively down the well. They couldn't afford to wait any longer, and the thought of Naraku finding more fragments as they idled made his blood boil. "I'm going to get her."

"Took you long enough," the little kitsune grumped, jumping off the edge of the well and poofing into his pink balloon form. "Come back soon," he added in an oddly strangled squeak, bobbing off over the forest.

"Huh?" Inuyasha raised a questioning brow at Shippou's retreating back as he balanced effortlessly on the well's ledge, then shrugged and took the step into space. "Whatever..."

Grasses swayed slowly back into place, masking the faint trail that led to the well as the rippling blue glow subsided.

------

Dust tickled his nose in a manner almost familiar as he emerged from the well, vaulting to land on the cool dirt floor of the shrine. Climbing the steps up to the doors, he slid them open and quietly slipped out, squinting in the dying light, which tinted the world around him a smouldering orange. Inuyasha had the sudden impression that everything was on fire, but the thought was quickly dismissed with a shake of his head. The next moment, it was totally forgotten, as a _presence_ blew past him from behind and dissipated some distance in front of the shrine.

"Who's there?" he barked out sharply to the apparently empty air, scanning the landscape with narrowed eyes, one hand instinctively going to the hilt of Tetsusaiga. A faint, tantalizing whiff of an unknown youkai's scent reached his nose, and he sniffed experimentally. The youki was dispersing extremely quickly, and in a few seconds, it was as if it were never there.

He spent several minutes sniffing at the ground, then stood up in frustration and surveyed the surroundings again. It was definitely gone, whatever it was. And it had probably followed him through the well, somehow. Though he could tell that it's level of power was way inferior to his, he still felt a slight twinge of uneasiness that he had brought a potentially dangerous youkai into this time. However, that was soon completely overwhelmed by renewed resentment towards Kagome. If she hadn't insisted on coming back...

A moment later, he sighed and his anger deflated, leaving him feeling rather weary. I guess you can't really blame her, Inuyasha thought to himself, this is, after all, the time she belongs in. She could have chosen to stay here, if she really wanted to, and he was rather pleased that she didn't, truth be told...

Looking up, he found that his feet had brought him to the foot of the ancient tree which Kikyo had sealed him against for fifty fleeting years, old memories overwhelming his recent, more tentative thoughts. A familiar yearning swept through him as he gazed unseeingly at the string of fluttering white twists of paper encircling the girth of its trunk. Kikyo...

...was dead and gone, fifty years ago, killed by Naraku in his scheming plots. He squelched down the potent rush of hatred and grief and shook his head again, reminding himself forcibly that the Kikyo present in his time was a shell baked of ashes and graveyard dirt and sustained by the souls of the dead, and that the only part of the true Kikyo lived on in Kagome's soul.

But that didn't alter the fact that it looked so much like the Kikyo who had sorrowfully told him that she was never to show weakness, never to be human... Kikyo who would give up the Jewel she spent her life protecting so that she could spend the rest of her life with him... Kikyo who had shot her final arrow in mistaken betrayal and sealed him to the tree, then gave up on her own life to join him in death.

Immersed in a tightening spiral of memories and conflicting emotions, he didn't hear the calls until someone tugged on one of his sleeves. Eyes snapping back into focus to see a patch of sky rapidly fading from orange to a dusky blue, with waving branches partially obscuring the sliver of a waning moon, he looked down to see Souta peering up at him in concern.

"Inu-niichan?" Souta said uncertainly, as if he did not expect a response. When he saw that he had finally got one, he brightened immediately. "Mama noticed you standing out here, so she sent me out to see if you wanted to have dinner with us..?"

"Uh.. uhh--" Inuyasha replied vaguely, still trying to struggle free from the tangle of his thoughts. Souta took it as assent and began pulling his sleeve towards the house, Inuyasha stumbling after to prevent the eager boy from ripping it off entirely.

Regaining his senses as he was dragged through the house, he glanced about the table, laid out with food and the other shiny dinner things that he had never gotten the hang of using. The old ji-ji was already eating; Souta had climbed back into his chair and had returned to eating his half-eaten bowl of rice. A place, presumably his, was being set at the table by Kagome's okaasan; she smiled at him in welcome, which he acknowledged with a hesitant nod, folding his arms and unconsciously tucking his hands into his sleeves. He glanced round the room again, then sniffed the air.

"Where's Kagome?" he asked the room at large, tilting his head slightly in an inquiring manner. Sota looked up, tried to speak with a full mouth, and immediately began to choke.

"She's gone over to a friend's house to study," the hacking boy's mother supplied helpfully, hurrying over to her son to thump him unsympathetically on his back. "Souta, you know you shouldn't try to talk with your mouth full."

The boy in question nodded contritely, coughed a few more times and subsided. Swallowing carefully, he added, "Oneechan won't be back for about two hours, yet."

"Huh," Inuyasha replied absently without consciously registering the words, his eyes focused on the food on the table. It sure looked good.. the last time he had eaten was early that morning, and he had spent the rest of his time pacing at the well. Good exercise, to be sure, but his stomach protested. Was protesting. He reddened slightly at the audible rumble, but thankfully no one showed any sign of noticing, though he could have sworn he could detect a laughing twinkle in her eyes as Kagome's mother shooed him towards the empty chair, rice piled high and steaming gently in his bowl.

He sat and began eating enthusiastically. Two bowls of rice and most of the food on the table later, Inuyasha was comfortably ensconced in Kagome's room, seated in the middle of the floor and playing with Buyo. Within fifteen minutes, the cat had managed to escape his grasp, shooting out of the window yowling in outrage, as per usual, and the hanyou was left alone.

Prowling about, he sniffed appreciatively at the familiar scent suffusing the room, then set to investigating the smells more closely, a routine he had developed a habit of doing when she wasn't around and he was. Close to the table, the anxiety and stress she suffered because of her all-important studies was evident in the slight sour spiciness of her scent; her bed was a balm of calm in contrast, the soothingly mild undertone of peace and relaxation blending with the freshly washed and sun-dried fragrance of the sheets. Buyo-smell.. sniff.. Souta-smell.. sniff.. those-three-girls-smell.. sniff..

That-Hobo-smell..!

Inuyasha sniffed more closely, a growl starting up unconsciously, deep in his throat. It was old, good.. all clear. He settled back on his haunches and only then noticed the rumbling growl. He terminated the sound with a slight flush that was comprised partly of embarrassment and shame; what right had he to be possessive when Kikyo still walked the earth?

But he had no energy to think about that complicated matter right now. Wearily, he wondered how much of the two hours had passed. He glanced briefly at the odd contraption that made irritating noises in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night; Kagome had informed him once that it told the time, but he hadn't figured out how the little thing did that yet. Obviously, until he did figure it out or when Kagome deigned to tell him, he would remain forever puzzled by it, so it didn't help much. Or at all. He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, still savouring her scent...

------

Kagome pored intently over her textbook as she picked her way home, relying on the regular pools of lamplight to reveal the text. Hojo-kun had been most helpful; he had a useful knack for explaining things that she did not understand, in terms that she did. She was contentedly confident that she would not fail the next test.

Absently humming a tune under her breath, she climbed the stairs, walked across the grounds, slid the front door open, called that she was home, climbed the steps to her room, flipped the light on and slung her bag against the side her desk, all without taking her eyes off her book and amazingly without incident. The bag slid down with thump and an abused sigh, resigned to such treatment. Ignoring its complaints, Kagome retrieved the pencil she had tucked away behind her ear and scribbled thoughtfully. That went there.. so you carried this number down and multiplied the equation by the other thing.. and.. she flipped to the back to check her answer. It didn't match.

She gave a strangled cry of frustration and sank heavily down into her chair, squinting at her workings in disgruntlement. What the h - ah! Galvanized, she corrected an errant number and scrawled the correct answer with a forceful flourish, ending it with a triumphant stab. Putting down the pencil and slumping back in relief, Kagome allowed herself a luxurious stretch and sighed, rubbing her temples. Given time she could probably get the numbers out of her head, but since those were actually needed at the moment, she would have to try and cope with the accompanying nightmares. Spinning about-face, she launched herself at her bed for an indulgent roll. It was otherwise occupied, the back of her mind told her belatedly, just as her eyes found out the same thing.

Kagome flailed helplessly as she dove headfirst into familiar crimson cloth, the momentum too great and the time too little for her to do anything else. Inuyasha, who had been sleeping peacefully just the moment before, thrashed awake, convinced in the muzzy haze of half-consciousness that a youkai was springing a sneak attack upon his hapless self. He grappled instinctively with his opponent, pinning the body down against the bed with his own before he realized where he was. And who might be struggling beneath him at the moment.

"Ka - Kagome?"

She freed a hand and swatted the folds of his sleeves off her face. "Yes?" she questioned archly, wriggling in her own attempt to attain freedom of movement. The front of her mind scolded the back for not telling her earlier that Inuyasha was there, but was countered with the reason that she had been otherwise preoccupied.

"What the hell were you doing?"

"Trying to get into my own bed, what else?" she muttered defensively, pulling her head free and discovering the hard way that her hair had somehow tangled with his rosary. Whoops. "Don't move!"

"What?" Inuyasha took a stab at pushing himself off her, with painful results.

"Get _down_," Kagome hissed. "Now!" When he showed signs of confusion, she purposefully knocked one supporting hand out from under him, which relieved her aching roots of the pressure. "Do. Not. Move."

"Why the hell not?" He was getting uncomfortably aware that she was much too close for his peace of mind. Looking down in a bid for distraction, the hanyou finally realized the problem. "Oh."

"Yes, oh," she grumbled, fingers busily unravelling strands of snarled, entangled hair from between the beads. "Kindly do not make any sudden moves."

"Keh." Inuyasha wasn't sure if Kagome was so absorbed in untangling her hair that she didn't find their position rather awkward, but he wasn't otherwise occupied like her. He coloured, hoping that she would not take much longer. A corner of his mind piped up that he didn't mind and that it hoped she would take _much_ longer, but he suppressed it ruthlessly. Though unfortunately not before his face began to rival his haori in colour. He hoped beyond hope that Kagome wouldn't notice.

Just as she went to work on the last bit of snared hair, Inuyasha heard the door creak open. At first the sound didn't register fully in his head. The next sound did, however.

"Oh, my," Mrs. Higurashi murmured faintly. 

* * *

Yay. A story idea I've had for a while. I'm gonna have lots of fun with this, hope you will too! Please remember to comment on what you liked and what you didn't, it'll help tons, and motivate me as well.. Until next time! 


	2. Chapter 2

Invisible Bonds

Chapter 2

"Young people are so energetic nowadays," Mrs. Higurashi added, looking as if she were fighting back a smile. "I came up to tell you that your dinner is warming, dear, and if you want you can take a bath first, I've switched on the heater." With that, she closed the door softly. Inuyasha could hear her light footsteps on the landing outside.

"Uh," Kagome said intelligently, then blushed. She could just picture what her mother had apparently 'walked in' on; Inuyasha, sprawled half on and half off her on her bed, while she appeared to be fiddling with his front. The hanyou seemed to be thinking the same thing, for his face was a shade that was giving his Robe of the Fire Rat fierce competition.

"Are you done?" Inuyasha inquired, striving manfully for an even tone and a composed countenance, and failing spectacularly at the latter. He could not imagine how anyone else would fail to at least suspect him of compromising behavior, let alone taking in the entire scene as if it was an everyday occurence. He decided that he was hanging around Miroku too much. The pervert must be tainting his innocent mind.

Meanwhile, Kagome tugged the last strand free, thanking Kami-sama that her mother was so.. tolerant? Respectful of her decisions? Not that she was actually doing anything, of course.. Feeling colour unaccountably climb her cheeks, she shoved him off to one side and sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed so that she faced away from him. She waited for her face to stop burning, all the while wondering if she should say anything about what just happened. Perhaps it would be better for her not to mention it?

Behind her, Inuyasha got upright as well, settling into his usual cross-legged sitting position. _Well, that was certainly strange_, he thought. One didn't get pounced on in one's sleep all that often, though by what he could deduce it was an accident. Bizarre sort of accident, nevertheless. Brushing himself off and adjusting his robes to keep his hands occupied during the uncomfortable silence, he could not resist the urge to flick his ears expectantly in her direction, trying to gauge her reaction.

Kagome finally sighed and stretched, breaking the silence, which had hung in the room like the tense, intangible pressure of an approaching storm. He flinched at the sudden sound and movement, then stared at her warily as she stood, unconsciously folding his hands in his sleeves in a defensive posture.

"I'm going to bathe," she informed him mildly. She knew why he was here, so there was no point in pursuing the matter; count it her fault for not paying attention, though she wasn't about to grant Inuyasha the surety of victory. It was amazing how math could fry her brain to the point that she didn't consciously notice a bright red form on her light pink bed, but she supposed it was one of the mysteries of the universe.

Or perhaps she was getting so used to his presence that she just didn't register him as someone she should be keeping an eye on, she mused. Not that the degree of trust had not been earned, of course, but she hadn't really had the chance to consider the matter, had she? The brisk pace of life on the other side of the well usually spared little time for rumination, what with demons out for your fragments and indirectly, your blood, if you happened to be in the way. Kagome slid a sidelong glance at Inuyasha as she walked out, suppressing a fond laugh as she caught a glimpse of the patent "Huh! What the hell just happened?" look on his face.

Inuyasha sat there unmovingly after she was gone, head tilted and eyebrow raised. The question marks were almost visible, hanging blinkingly above his head. How unusual, he reflected. That was the second time that she hadn't picked a fight given the chance in what, four days? Five? He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Conflicting emotions surged and flared; the internal tumult was similar to that he experienced when he contemplated Kikyo, but with sentiments that were much more pleasant in variety..

In the midst of sorting out his myriad feelings and thoughts, he suddenly felt exhausted, something he definitely did not experience often out of the blue, if at all. He shook his head vigorously, trying to clear the swirls of thick fog that were invading it, slowly but surely. His brain did not want to cooperate. Wrestling sluggishly with his unwilling mind, he attempted to engage his logical processes and failed. Fighting it all the way, he slipped from confused stasis into an uneasy sleep rife with dreams.

------

Making sure the cloaking shield was firmly in place, the presence fluxed lazily. If it were a cat, it would have been sinuously stretching, loose-limbed and self-satisfied after finishing a bowl of cream. As it was, it was thrumming with pleasure at the unexpected harvest tonight. Who knew that a hanyou could possess such depth and intensity? Much more satisfying than most ordinary demon or human emotions. Those were generic; hatred, greed, bloodlust, fear, pain, all the baser and cruder cousins were about all that Sengoku Jidai had. This.. this was different. The only ever thing that ever approached it in terms of richness was a far cry from these delectable morsels.

Too bad the girl was shielded in her own invisible way; the vibrant violet glow of her aura told of a powerful miko in her own right. It was just about impenetrable, though feelings similar to the hanyou's lurked beneath the surface, at least as strong if not stronger. A yearning to sample it was soon overcome by caution and good sense; if this cover was not blown, a steady source of sustenance from the first source was assured. Greed would almost certainly bring downfall.

Carefully, it began to draw more youki from the target, to blunt his youkai senses. On an impulse, as the hanyou fell asleep, it delicately manipulated his mind so as to bring to the fore the memories which would evoke the strongest feelings..

------

Kagome towelled her hair dry and descended the stairs into the kitchen, drawn by the aroma of gently warming food. She murmured heartfelt thanks to her smiling mother as she fell upon her belated dinner. She was ravenous, no doubt due to the vast numbers of brain cells she had spent that day in attempting to comprehend mathamatic formulae. Hey, that rhymed.

As she inhaled her food, she found the quiet atmosphere of the house rather disturbing. Sure, Souta was still at his games and her grandfather was loudly trying to convince his grandson that the games in question were demonic and stole souls, but other than the usual domestic noises, there was nothing. Nothing, no sound to show that she had a hanyou from the Sengoku Jidai, five hundred years in the past, sitting in her bedroom at that very moment.

Kagome found it suspicious. It would have been totally in Inuyasha's nature to jump her as soon as she was fully clothed and demand that she return to the other era, right now. Either that or he'd bug her about packing and setting off as soon as possible the next morning. Neither was he teasing Buyo, something of a favourite pastime with Inuyasha, for the cat was winding itself around her ankles in a bid to coax tidbits from her. She absentmindedly offered the feline her last portion of fish, then stood up, stacked the dishes and washed them, her movements accompanied by satisfied cat-sounds as Buyo enthusiastically went to work on her prize.

Nothing like finding things out for yourself, Kagome decided, yawning as she trudged up to her room. Stifling another yawn as she opened the door and walked in, the first thing she noticed was that a familiar red blob was still on her bed. She rubbed tears from her eyes and took a closer look.

Inuyasha was still in the same position, cross-legged and in the corner of her bed closest to the door, back leaning against the wall. What was odd was that he was slouched sideways, head down and ears floppy, as if he had completely relaxed in his sleep, something Kagome had never seen happen. Even in slumber he was always alert to every sign of danger, and never let down his guard; the total relaxation alone was a subtle warning.

Maybe he simply felt at home here, but intuition overcame flattery and cautioned her otherwise. Clambering onto the bed to get an even closer look, she began to seriously worry as the gentle bounce of the bed under her weight made his body slump over limply. Kagome crawled over to his still form and anxiously tugged at a sleeve. "Inuyasha?"

There was no response. Inordinately concerned now, she pushed his obscuring silver fringe out of his face and scanned his face. It seemed peaceful but for the tiny frown lines between his eyebrows. Nothing seemed wrong but it didn't hurt to check. With this in mind, Kagome shook him gently by the shoulders. "Inuyasha?"

She started as the hanyou shifted, tensed, then whimpered brokenly. "Okaa.." There was a world of hurt and loss in the simple word, and the tone was so vulnerably unlike his usual rough-and-tumble personality that Kagome felt involuntary tears spring to her eyes. She eased him onto her lap and cradled him gently, murmuring soothing words. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was dreaming about.

Soon enough, his body relaxed once again, curling trustingly toward her warmth. The simple gesture tugged at her heartstrings, and spoke more about the release of the untrusting part of his soul than she cared to contemplate. Smiling to herself, she stroked his back calmingly and rhythmically, the way one would comfort a small, scared child. Tomorrow would tell if there was anything other than weariness influencing his sleep.

-------

The presence cringed away from the storm of fear and pain and despair, too afraid of their intensity to even touch the bubble-thin skin that contained their full fury. What had it unleashed? If it had wanted such emotions, it could have gone looking in Sengoku Jidai. Unwillingly, it skimmed the very surface to get an idea of the cause, and flinched away as soon as it divined the essence of Inuyasha's dreams.

Sympathy and respect welled up as its estimation of the hanyou rose. For him to have recovered from such a turbulent childhood and to have built up such power even being what he was was a remarkable achievement, to say the least. And to still have the capacity for such strong, positive emotion, when he knew full well he could be hurt through them again.. Chagrined, it subdued the light mental push and let the dreams fade into deep sleep, which was accompanied by the mellow flavour of contentment and peace. For once, it left him alone, and withdrew to deliberate the next course of action.

-------

Inuyasha woke slowly. The first thing he noticed was the melancholy morning serenade of birds, sounding muffled and distant. He soon became aware of an insistent pattering noise at that same distance, which he deduced lethargically to be rain. As he struggled to open his eyes, he felt a warm, familiar presence just beside him. Sniff. Kagome?

His eyes snapped open. Or at least, they tried. All he could manage was a bleary, half-mast sort of look. The first thing he saw was blue, patterned with darker blue. _What the..?_ With a heroic effort, he forced his eyes into focus. There wasn't much of a change, but now he could tell that it was the blue cloth of one of Kagome's sleeping kimonos. And where it was, she probably was too..

He tilted his head and angled his eyes upward. Um. Directing his gaze further north, it confirmed that this was, indeed, the girl in question, apparently sleeping slumped against the wall. _Did I make her do that?_ The more pressing query was what he was doing there, however. Rolling to the opposite side so as to get enough space and a better view of his surroundings, Inuyasha realized too late that he was _on her bed_.

"Oomph," he grunted as he thudded onto the cold, unforgiving wood floor. _Itai_. Where was grass where you needed it?

The noise roused Kagome from her sleep. She sat bolt upright and reached instinctively for her nonexistent bow and quiver of arrows, then groaned as she discovered the painful crick in the back of her neck. Rubbing it ruefully, she looked around, blinking away the haze of sleep and wondering what woke her up. Why had she been sleeping in a semi-vertical position?

Yawning and stretching languidly, she peered at the window and the fine spray of drizzle that sifted in, through curtains that fluttered in the rampant breeze. _Rain on a Saturday_, she sighed to herself, then got up to close the windows.

"Ow, dammit," Inuyasha yelped, from somewhere beneath her feet.

Kagome jumped; fortunately, off his back, before more damage could be inflicted. At his voice, she remembered suddenly what had happened last night; hastily sliding the windows shut, she turned back to assess the damage. "Are you all right?"

"No," he ground out between clenched teeth, feeling much abused. His back concurred. "Try being stepped on sometime, wench." Gingerly, he pulled himself up into a sitting position and rubbed the sore spot.

"Well, good morning to you too, Inuyasha," Kagome crouched down beside him and fought back the urge to smile. "Sorry about that, I didn't see you."

"Yeah, well, your apology sure cures my pain," the hanyou grumbled, turning his back to her. There was a short pause. "And good morning," he added grudgingly. "Though it's not much of one."

She laughed and began rubbing the back so conveniently proffered to her. Inuyasha tensed at the contact at first, then relaxed as her hands massaged the sore part of his back he could not reach. He closed his eyes at the strange, but soothing mix of the dull ache from his bruises and pleasure, leaning back against her hands.

"Ano, Inuyasha?" Kagome offered tentatively, after a minute or so. He replied with a drowsy murmur of inquiry. She felt that this was about a good time as any to broach the subject of last night. "Last night when I came back to my room, you were asleep..?" Letting the statement trail off into a question, she stopped rubbing and waited expectantly.

Inuyasha turned about to face her, his expression uneasy. "Yeah.." he said carefully. What he had been trying to figure out last night finally started to turn the cogs in his brain. He decided that two heads were better than one. "Yesterday, when you left, I was, uh - that is, I suddenly felt really.. drained, so I fell asleep."

"Drained?" Kagome said, perplexed. "Do you mean tired? Like from running around?"

"Couldn't be, I was sleeping before you came and woke me up, and I don't need that much sleep anyhow," Inuyasha muttered, frowning, once again folding his hands into his sleeves.

"But what would drain so much of your energy?" she asked, furrowing her brow. "When I came in you were in as deep a sleep as I've ever seen you in. You didn't even wake up when I shook you."

"I.. didn't?" He looked distinctly rattled by the relevation. He had never failed to wake in response to such since his childhood. It was a skill born of needing to be awake and wary every time there was something out of the ordinary, for if one didn't manage to train the subconscious to respond _instantly_ to any sort of threat, one was dead meat in the competitive world of the Sengoku Jidai. If it wasn't youkai looking for an easy meal, it was a ningen trying to exorcise him; being a hanyou was not easy on childhoods.

"You didn't," Kagome confirmed. "It got me worried. I've never seen you not immediately wake up to a summons before."

"That's because I usually don't." Inuyasha twitched his ears and sat up. "Someone's coming."

"Oh, that'll be Mama or Souta.." she got up and grabbed a brush from the table, finger-combing her ruffled hair with her free hand. "Breakfast must be ready."

Right on cue, a voice floated up the stairwell. "Kagome-neechan, Inu-niichan, come on down, Mama says breakfast is ready."

"We'll talk about that after breakfast, okay?" Kagome winced as her brush encountered a particularly stubborn tangle. "We could always ask Kaede or the others about it later."

Inuyasha nodded and stood up, looking rather pleased that he had gotten some sort of confirmation from her that she was finally ready to go back. "s probably nothing."

She worked out the snarl and continued brushing. "Meanwhile, could you go down first? I need my privacy to change."

"Sure, no problem," he replied off-handedly, making for the window and being diverted with a "it's raining, Inuyasha, use the door". His good humour was returning fast with the promise of food. "Not like you have anything to see, anyway," was his playful parting shot.

She mock-growled and shook her brush at him as he closed the door. Was it just her or was Inuyasha mellowing, just a little? Kagome grinned to herself as she picked an outfit. Must be the rain or something.

-------

"Come on, hurry up, wench," Inuyasha watched her from his perch on her bed, jiggling impatiently. Kagome was currently attempting to force a huge pile of her schoolbooks into her already-bulging bag. "Give it up, it'll never fit," he added as an afterthought; she had been trying to locate some free space for the past few minutes.

Ignoring him and contemplating the pile, she rapidly reduced it to about one fourth of its original size and crammed it relentlessly into the bag. Trying to buckle it down valiantly, she glared at the hanyou, who stared back in fascination. "You could _try_ to help, you know."

"Nah," he replied dismissively. "It's much more fun to watch you try to do it." His golden eyes were narrowed with amusement.

"It would be fun to watch your face meet the ground, too," she snapped. One buckle met its mate with a strained click. She went to work on the other.

"You wouldn't dare," he drawled lazily. "It would break your precious bed."

Kagome revised her opinion of him mellowing. Baka inu. It was time to bring out the trump card. "We would leave faster if you helped."

"Keh!" he snorted. "You seem to be doing quite well by yourself, though," he noted, as the second buckle snapped into place. "C'mon, let's go." He bounded off the bed and grabbed the bag in one swift motion, as if it weighed less than one of the fragments themselves. Slinging it jauntily over his shoulder, he vaulted over the railing of the stairs and disappeared.

Kagome made a strangled sound that somehow conveyed disbelief, admiration, and exasperation, all at the same time, then followed him the orthodox way, picking up her little bottle of shards and slipping it into her pocket on the way.

At the entrance of the house, she stared in dismay at the pouring rain. There was no way they would get to the shrine without getting soaked to the skin. "Umbrella, umbrella," she mumbled as she hunted for one, then shrieked as she was picked up bodily and slung over a red-clad shoulder next to her yellow bag. The next moment, they were running across the grounds in the rain.

Kagome found out that Inuyasha's hair made a nice shelter, so much so that when she was finally put down in the shrine itself, her top was barely wet. Her legs were another matter; the shoes squelched happily as she dismounted.

"This way is faster," Inuyasha told her with an air of triumph, shaking himself like a dog. Drops of water flew in all directions. "No need to waste time with those things."

"We would have been drier," she pointed out, fleeing from the mini rainstorm to sit on the edge of the well and shake out her shoes. Her trusty bag, she noticed, had turned a rather darker shade of yellow. She hoped her books weren't wet.

"Everything will dry out eventually," he reasoned, leaping down the steps. "Come on, Kagome, we don't have all day."

"Fine, fine," she muttered, pulling on her soggy footwear. "Let's go, then."

They jumped into the well together.

And hit the bottom with a sickening thud that knocked the breath out of both of them, Inuyasha more so because he had been carrying a bag roughly the size and weight of an elephant.

"What - the - hell!" he croaked.

* * *

Sorry it took so long, it's been a long and tiring week, plus I had an idea for a oneshot I simply had to write.. it's called Misunderstanding, and it's been posted, read it for laughs! 

By the way, since someone asked, shikon no kakera means the Sacred Jewel fragments. Mmyep. I know there isn't much action at the moment, but I'm fairly sure it'll get more interesting from here.. And the genre is such mostly because I find that nothing else fits, so.. yeah. Heh.

Oh, and thanks for the reviews, all. :D I wouldn't mind more.. -hinthint- Well, until next time!


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